Going Global

2.1 GlobalisationDefinitions from a “Globalisation for Beginners” web site, while an essay on the various aspects of the topic can be found here.A succinct definition can be found here.You should read this page from David Ludden at Pennsylvania State University. It gives you a more detailed introduction, though it is hardly exhaustive (an amazon.co.uk search will yield in excess of 80,000 books with “globalization” - and not "globalisation" - in the title).You may want to read this article: When did globalisation begin? for a different view - one that takes you beyond the GCSE realm. On the other hand, this site about China and Europe shows that our notions about Europe's central role in globalisation are - at best - blinkered.Here is a mind map which gives a mention to a lot of key aspects of globalisation. Print it out for your file!The BBC rented a container and attached a GPS tracking device to it, following it for a year. You can read about it here and see a full map of its travels here. This is a simple but effective illustration of the links which exist between countries on a number of levels.

You really should know about the Bretton Woods system, which created the global financial framework in the period from WWII. This system created the IMF. The IMF was asleep [or here as a pdf] on its watch though - it failed to see risk or to head off the bust in 2008 at the end of the long boom. The final bust in autumn 2008 was a long time in the making and this BBC timeline gives some idea of the scale of the financial mess created. For a fun and informative account, read “Whoops” by John Lanchester. We are not - I fear - out of the (Bretton) woods yet.As the tides of globalisation ebb and flood, new locations become the centre of economic and cultural attention, while once powerful regions decline. Old superpowers decline, new ones struggle to emerge.2.2 Global GroupingsPatterns of global wealth and poverty may be examined at: The World Resources Institute for information about human heath and well-being.Human Development Reports (from the UNDP) and associated statistics page.Trends over time may be examined at Gapminder - you’ll need to look carefully at this.

2.3 Global NetworksOne of the key aspects of globalisation is the development of networks for moving capital, commodities, people and ideas between places. Networks require flows between places - reciprocity.See these maps to see differences between flows and networksThere have long been networks, but few of them were truly global until the 19th century. Shipping: 20th century shipping lanes map and compare it with shipping lanes before 1854. Railways: in Britain; in Europe; the US in 1870, 1900 and 1918. Most airline web sites will give maps of routes operated - check out your favourite (do a search).The internet is a new type of network, shrinking space and time, and for some flows, reducing the friction of distance to nothing. There is a growing number of web sites dedicated to mapping cyberspace - the networks which connect us electronically.Ocean cables - fibre-optic networks which span the globe - this is the real internet.You can find lots of maps of different types of electonic networks here.World internet use: and you can check out time series data and regional information. This traceroute site allows you to see where your internet requests are routed. Type an internet address e.g. www.bbc.co.uk and then click on the “Proxy Trace” button. It may take up to 30 to 40 seconds, so be patient. You will see just how connected you are to the rest of the world. Do the same for youtube, google, amazon, apple, www.bryanston.co.uk and so on.The BBC has a very detailed set of graphics of the internet: how its use has grown; who uses it; who owns it and who is connected to it.Not everybody has access to globalisation’s benefits, as this map shows. Some people and countries are disconnected - even in the UK this happens - but globally it is even more obvious that many people are being left behind while some portions of the world’s population become increasingly connected and benefit from this.This International Networks Archive has some food for thought - and that’s just on the home page.Networks need renewing - there is both destruction of old technology and improvements in the new. This is a link to the Artsy page for Burtynsky, that contains a biography and collection of over 100 pieces of his work.

2.4 Roots and 2.5 On the moveMigration patterns as shown by the WorldMapper project, illuminates this aspect of globalisation.For a full low down on migration check out the Office For National Statistics' latest "Migration Statistics Quarterly Report." It gives the best estimates of migration while skipping the tabloid bile. It is therefore in need of study, not just reflex reactions.The OECD keeps databases on migration here as does the International Organisation for Migration. Flows of people are key to the globalisation process. Without flows of Europeans to North America, its resources would have remained underdeveloped. Without flows of slaves, coffee would not have been grown (scientific name - Coffea arabica) in Brazil. Without Chinese migrants, rubber (scientific name: Hevea brasiliensis) would not have been grown in Malaysia.There are many clues to our roots and origins.Names are a good start - especially family names, but so too are given names for as this shows.Migrations are a key element of globalisation. You can find everything you need to know (well, just about) at this Guide to International Migration. Navigate around the site using the menu on the left. A similar site is the is run by the International Organisation for Migration.

The ONS web site has a very useful “Focus On” page and links on Population and Migration. The ONS site will be your first stopping off point for official data on internal, and international population movements as they relate to England and Wales. This is a useful file, and you need to look at Table 1.3 and 2.3. It distinguishes between nationality and country of birth. Why are there so many German born people living in this country? In the US the Department of Homeland Security has responsibility for immigration, on which they compile reports. The UK Parliament completed a review of the Economic Impacts of Migration in 2008. The UK Border Agency can answer your questions about UK citizenship, nationality and other imponderables. While some people feel that there is an uncontrolled migration into Britain, there has been a considerable flow out of the UK over the past years. Poole Unitary Authority has some interesting reports on Polish and other A8 migrants. UCL (London’s “Global University”) has a londonprofiler map to help you gain a picture of London’s multicultural nature. Click on the “MULTICULTURAL ATALS OF LONDON” and choose your options from the drop-down menu.

Spain has been a favoured destination. Here are two Excel files, downloaded from Spain’s Institudo Nacional de Estadística: this one showing origins and destinations for immigrants to Spain, and this one showing the age groups of immigrants to Spain - both for 2007 and both just from other EU countries.Migration from Eastern Europe to the UK has been debated in the popular press (simplistic and not always accurate), so you need to look at Southampton University’s study of migration from the A8 countries, or this presentation of migration issues in the UK. On a smaller scale, Dorset has seen an influx of A8 workers, reported here and here. Most local authorities at county or UA level have similar reports. Research... The Migration Observatory has a selection of ready-made charts and a facility for creating your own.This section also requires you to study ageing populations, so here is some information about some of the issues in England and Wales, the USA, or as a global issue. The Queen's Anniversary Messages "Facts and Figures" page indicates how the UK's population has aged over the last century or so, while this radio programme - China : Too old to get rich - highights the potentially catastrophic impacts of the one child policy.

This map shows how the centre of population in the US has moved over the last 220 years with immigration and migration...

2.6 World CitiesGlobalization and world cities: from the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network based at Loughbrough University. There is a large set of links from this web site - quite tiring really if you look at them all. An organisation called IEEE has a very good set of links to megacities, Shanghai, São Paulo, Mumbai, Tokyo and New York. Worth a look. You can find an interesting presentation on the history of urbainisation and associated problems of urban growth here.The United Nations provides a very useful World Urbanisation Prospects page with some very good resources - maps, tables, charts and data - should you need it.A very useful source of information is the City Population web site - the name is a give-away. However, it is a mine of information and can furnish you with a lot of detail for case studies. Take a look....The University of Koeln’s site on megacities will allow you to investigate, well, megacities. Click on the links and see what you get. As with all research, you will need to be persistent - don’t expect to find what you are after on the first page. Research isn’t like that.There is a beautiful Interactive Digital Atlas of Megalopolis, showing various characteristics of the urban area which extends from Boston, through New York to Washington (BosNyWash) on the east coast of the US.As you would expect, the UN keeps a lot of information about our changing urban habit (and habitat). You can find data on the largest urban agglomerations in countries, regions and continental areas here. Once you’ve found what you want, you can download the data file to import into Excel to chart, should you wish. The UN has information about urban and rural trends here.

If all of these numbers make your head spin, you can check out this Al Jazeera report on Jakarta, and here is one video and another of Dharavi, a shanty town in Mumbai, from youtube. Once you have seen the youtube videos, perhaps you should look at “London Labour and the London Poor” by Henry Mayhew. This link takes you to some of the text, so you can see that Mumbai’s and Dharavi’s experiences are similar to London’s. Check out the pure-finder as a form of employment.Urban change is a given. While new cities spring up in China and India, decay and decline are well established trends in the USA.

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